George Harrison hated working with Phil Spector: “He was never there”
George Harrison always thrived on the idea of being in a band. He might have had one of the biggest solo successes that any former Beatle ever had right out of the gate, but Harrison’s reputation as ‘The Quiet One’ always lent itself well to playing off other musicians rather than being the one with the spotlight on him all the time. So when he didn’t have anyone to help guide him through some of his greatest works, he wasn’t going to roll over and put up with bullshit from anyone.
Because Harrison already had enough of people getting a few too many egos in the room during the end of the Fab Four. They were always cordial with each other whenever discussing their music, but it’s hard not to see ‘Isn’t It a Pity’ as a way for Harrison to get revenge on Paul McCartney for not letting him play any lead guitar fills in the middle of ‘Hey Jude’.
When the band called it a day, though, Harrison knew he needed more than a basic approach to bring his songs to life. He knew that every one of his tunes was as good as John Lennon’s or McCartney’s, but bringing Phil Spector on for the production meant getting smothered in too much reverb in the mix, which led to him loathing the original version of the song ‘Wah-Wah’.
Since All Things Must Pass became one of the biggest albums from any ex-Beatle, it wasn’t like anyone was complaining that Spector didn’t add his magic touch to everything. Even though everyone was waiting with bated breath for another major blockbuster, Harrison knew he needed to take things back a bit, with Living in the Material World being one of the most introspective releases he’s ever made.
Even though pieces of the album had single potential, like ‘Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long’ and ‘Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth),’ tracks like ‘Be Here Now’ benefit from having a sparse arrangement where Harrison is free to be as vulnerable as possible with his audience. Any kind of reverb would have killed the energy of the record, but Harrison didn’t have to worry about it when Spector couldn’t be bothered to show up.
After going through his first album and overseeing The Concert For Bangladesh, Spector took his foot off the gas far too much for Harrison’s taste, saying, “[Phil] kept falling over and breaking his ankles, wrists. The guy who was his helper was having heart attacks. [He] was never there. I literally used to have to go and break into the hotel to get him. Then he used to have 18 cherry brandies before he could get himself down to the studio. I got so tired of that because I needed somebody to help. I was ending up with more work than if I’d just been doing it on my own.”
The result was still one of Harrison’s finest albums, but this should have been an omen for how Spector would get working with Lennon. He already had a hands-off approach when making Plastic Ono Band, but Lennon’s description of the producer’s behaviour during the Rock ‘n’ Roll sessions feels like a nightmare from start to finish.
Even though Living in the Material World did exactly what it was designed to do by being a softspoken follow-up, having Spector not on his A-game was only the first sign that things were going to go south for Harrison. Dark Horse may have been his first dud, but hearing him eventually getting as cynical as possible on Gone Troppo sounds like someone who’s had to deal with people like Spector one too many times.
